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Lowell man gets life sentence in wife's beating death

By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com

Updated:
12/12/2012 06:42:26 AM EST

LOWELL -- In what the prosecution described as a "brutal, shocking and horrific death," a 64-year-old Lowell man was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2011 bludgeoning death of his wife of 30 years.

After a weeklong trial and only an hour of deliberations, a Lowell Superior Court jury Tuesday found The Ngoc Tran guilty of murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a person 60 or older.

Judge David Ricciardone sentenced Tran to mandatory life in prison without parole and, beyond that, a consecutive sentence of nine to 10 years in prison on the assault charge.

Two of Tran's children stormed out of the courtroom as Tran gave a rambling statement in which he blamed his late wife for turning his children against him, according to sources.

Tran was arrested after Lowell police responded to his house on Walnut Street on the night of April 28, 2011, to find Tran sitting on his couch and sobbing. When he saw the officer, Tran held out his hands and told him, "I killed my wife."

In the bathroom, officers found the lifeless body of Son Tran, 60. Her skull had been fractured and her face mangled by repeated blows with a rubber mallet. She was covered in blood.

Tran confessed to police that while his wife was in the bathroom, he went to the basement and got a rubber mallet with the intent of killing her.

During her closing arguments, defense attorney Debra Dewitt told the jury there is no dispute that Tran beat his wife to death, but she said there is still a question regarding why he did it.

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Dewitt's defense-paid psychologist testified that Tran suffered from depression, a mental impairment brought on by despair over finances, his belief that his wife didn't respect him, and that she "poisoned" their children against him.

Dewitt asked the jury whether Tran's actions on the day of the murder -- beating his wife with a mallet and stuffing her mouth with toilet paper -- was the product of someone thinking rationally.

Dewitt argued that Tran made sacrifices over the decades, including being kept in a Vietnamese prison for six years when he returned to that country to bring his wife and four children to the United States.

"That was the beginning of decades of sadness and depression suffered by The Tran," she said.

"He is a man from a culture where the man is the head of the household," Dewitt said.

Tran believed his wife poisoned their children against him and twisted their minds so they disrespected him, she said. His plan was to kill his wife and then commit suicide via electrocution, but he botched his suicide attempt.

But prosecutor Lisa McGovern argued that no one is to blame but Tran. She said his wife suffered a "brutal, shocking and horrific death."

Tran used a heavy rubber mallet to pummel his wife's skull, but stopped long enough to stuff toilet paper in her mouth to muffle her moans, McGovern said. Then he resumed beating her until she died. She died of blunt trauma.

McGovern told the jury there is no credible evidence that Tran suffered from a mental impairment.

"He was unhappy and depressed, but it was not a psychotic depression," she said. "It isn't like there is a magic window that opens and significant mental illness flies in and then flies out."

Tran had options other than murder, but it was more important to him to kill his wife, McGovern said. So he planned it out and chose the right moment.

Tran left a five-page suicide note for his youngest daughter explaining why he killed his wife and listed assets to provide her with financial resources. Tran planned to electrocute himself, but only ended up burning his finger.

When Tran's children arrived at the house and found their mother dead, they called the police. Officers found Tran sitting on the living room couch, sobbing and confessing that he killed his wife.

As Tran sat at the defendant's table in court looking straight ahead, McGovern pointed to him and told the jury, "The blame lies with this man and only this man."

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